BACK REFLECTION

BACK REFLECTION: NEWFOUNDLAND TERRESTRIAL ROUTE CONSTRUCTION 1853-1856 (PART1)

BY PHILIP PILGRIM

The upcoming Back Reflections articles will focus on the construction of the Newfoundland Terrestrial Telegraph Line. This 400 mile route was needed to connect the eastern most point of North America to the North American telegraph network. Construction began in June 1853 and was completed in October 1856.

To break the ice, here is a light story with a little mischievous humor that predates child labour laws and under-age drinking laws. It was written in 1915 by Samuel Ruby. He was a young boy of 14 who signed up to construct the telegraph line in July 1854. A little research shows that his background is farming and agriculture, so his ability to identify animal tracks should be considered accurate.

Samuel’s story was published in The Newfoundland Quarterly magazine (Vol 15. No2, October 1915). At that time, he would have been 75 and mentions that he may be the only surviving member of the 360 man team that constructed the line.

Building The Transcontinental Telegraph

BY SAMUEL RUBY

When it was proposed to build an overland telegraph line from St. John’s to Port-aux Basque, the customary opposition to all great reforms showed itself. For years we had great difficulty in receiving news from the outside world. Letters were always scarce, because they were mostly brought by sailing vessel, and postage was expensive. Under such circumstances it can be imagined that a good telegraph service would be an immense boon to the city. Old-fashioned people said it would not pay and it could not be built. But finally, men of pluck and foresight took the problem in hand, and getting concessions from the Government, commenced work and carried the line through. This work was done when the Hon. Charles Fox Bennett was

Premier, and the Parliamentary reports of the time will show how strenuously the proposition was opposed.

Frederic Newton Gisborne was the most active promoter of the transcontinental line. He was Engineer on construction for the company building the landlines in the Maritime Provinces of Canada in 1848—51. In the fall of 1851, he came to St. John’s and planned a line to connect with the Canadian system. His plan was to build a land line from St. John’s to Cape Ray and make connections with Sydney, Cape Breton, with carrier pigeons. He surveyed the route between September 1st and December 4th, 1851, and estimated the cost at £64,096. Later, he estimated a cable connection across the Straits, in place of the carrier pigeon service, could be made at an additional cost of the total cost of the system about £165,000. The Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company was chartered by Parliament, in the Spring of 1852, and it was given the right to erect telegraphs in the Colony for thirty years. In December 1852, the Ellen Gisborne arrived in St. John’s to carry material and supplies for the men engaged in the work. The capital of the Company was subscribed in New York and construction was commenced.

In a petition presented to Parliament on May 29, 1854, by the Hon. P. F. Little, the advantages of the Telegraph was set forth as follows: The value of electric telegraphs are every day becoming more apparent and are practically tested in Great Britain, the sister colonies, and the United States; that the British Government is about constructing a submarine telegraph communication between London and Galway; that there is already a line of telegraph from Halifax, Nova Scotia, through New Brunswick to Canada and the United States, and that it is proposed to extend the line from Halifax to Sydney, Cape Breton, within 50 miles of Cape North; and that there is a Bill before the Congress Of the United States for carrying the American line to San Francisco, California, which will probably be in operation in two years hence ; that if a line were established message could easily be transmitted in one day; that, as there is no doubt that a fleet steamer would sail from Galway to this port in five or six days, a message by this route could be transmitted from London to California in seven days, and giving to St. John’s an advantage of thirty-six hours over any other port it must necessarily on the construction of such a telegraph line, become the port of call on this side of the Atlantic.”

The St. John’s Post, of April 4th, 1854, editorially commenting on the from St. John’s to Cape Ray and connected with St. Paul’s Island with Cape North by submarine telegraph or by steamer from Cape Ray to Cape North, until a submarine telegraph should be laid, a communication would be established between St. John’s, the neighboring colonies and the United States, to California, to which latter place a petition said: Bright prospects for Newfoundland stretch away in golden vistas over the future—but we will not up lift the veil, lest the yet to be realized visions which in prospective come crowding upon the view, be deemed as more than one present reality has been deemed before, but the misty shadows of a distempered mind, the dreamy